[2003-04-06-GAEA] Manami Toyota vs Meiko Satomura

[ohtani's jacket]

Manami Toyota defends the AAAW Title

Wow, this was really good. I thought Manami Toyota was washed up in GAEA, but nuh-uh. This was a really aggressive match with an element of spitefulness to it. To be fair, a lot of the credit should go to Satomura as that felt like more of a Meiko influence. Toyota vs. Toyota-clone matches generally aren't known for their aggression, though Toyota had ramped up her bitchiness and worked on her heel act over the years. I really liked Toyota's performance in this match. When she first started acting like a bitch in matches, it often felt like she was copying Mima Shimoda and Takako Inoue. Here, she was far more ruthless. Satomura's challenge for the title was different from a lot of the challenges we saw Meiko make as an up-and-comer, presumably because she'd been there before and was now challenging as a former champ. Toyota was hellbent on putting Satomura in her place and showing everyone in GAEA who the Queen Bee was. Prior to this, I would have said that Manami's jump to GAEA felt a bit like Bret in WCW, but she at least has this resume stuffer.